THE Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, on Tuesday, hosted its Anti-Corruption Roundtable aimed at strengthening integrity systems and building resilient public and private institutions to fight against corruption.
The event, which was held at the Pegasus Suites and Corporate Centre, saw the gathering of several private sector bodies and senior government officials and examined the implementation of recommendations from the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption periodic reviews.
Delivering the feature address at the opening session of the one-day engagement, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, stated that over the years Guyana has made enormous strides in its administrative and legal infrastructure, which has strengthened anti-corruption.

Most recently, she stated that the government’s digitisation efforts in various sectors and fields are all important to anti-corruption.
A lot of these efforts, she said while using the single-window system as an example, allow for transparency, access to services in a timely and efficient way and reduce the opportunities for corruption.
However, prior to this, she noted that many years ago Guyana had made significant changes to its legislation, which saw improvements in the role of constitutional bodies and oversight and accountability.
“The issue of oversight and ensuring that we are able to reduce opportunities [for corruption] is important and I think we’ve come a long way; we have much more to go,” she said.
Meanwhile, President of the Private Sector Commission, Gerry Gouveia Jr, stated that initiatives like the roundtable are a testament to how, when the government and private sector unite, they can achieve progress in moving the country forward and, by extension, advance the region.
“This anti-corruption framework that we’re discussing in this second roundtable, including the private sector, is not only important just for a feel-good topic, but more so, it increases our business competitiveness in the region and internationally,” he added.
The roundtable was built on a similar session, which was held last year with private sector organisations as well. It also looked at the measures that the private sector can employ to combat corruption and for the organisations and government to collectively find solutions to strengthen the laws and economy.